Certified Buildings Scheme

IX Liverpool Certification is an independent ratings system for buildings that is designed for both landlord and tenant that helps improve Digital Infrastructure within the regions buildings while providing transparency to tenants over a buildings Digital capability.

For Landlords we empower them to understand and improve Digital Connectivity in their building in order to attract the very best tenants while adding unique selling points to their estate and helping to future proof their investment, helping to reduce conflict, dissatisfaction and early termination of leases as well as helping to produce greater long term yields for the property owner.

For Tenants, we empower them by helping to find and select the best buildings in the region for their requirements (based on their digital/connectivity needs) while putting them directly into contact with landlords of Certified Buildings that meet their requirements.

Building Types

Currently we are certifying two types of buildings on the scheme, office buildings and student accommodation:

Office Building certification is based on the buildings digital infrastructure, connection resilience, connection diversity and accessibility of connectivity inside a building and is generally based around the legitimate needs and reasonable expectations of a modern business so it can grow and enjoy it’s office space without limitation or imposed connectivity restrictions.

Student buildings are rated on speed vs contention, availability, WIFI radio performance, client isolation and connections to University’s and are based around the legitimate and reasonable expectations of a students digital needs in the 21st Century.

All building types are awarded based on a simple Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum system and for buildings to be eligible for certification they have to operate on an open policy for all communications providers, allowing any network in the world to enter and connect, without restrictions, favouritism, monopoly or the placing any member of the Liverpool Internet Exchange at disadvantage against another. In simple terms, the scheme wants to partner with landlords that promote open infrastructure, encourage open market competition and a “want” to improve their property assets in line with the needs of the people of Liverpool City Region.

Certifications are performed by a committee of independent members and volunteers of our Internet Exchange who follow a strict framework-driven procedure before a certification is awarded.  Judging and deliberation of such awards are performed at a public hearing that anyone can attend to ensure transparency and openness of the process. The judges cannot be part of or connected to the applying member/provider and all pending certifications are communicated to all members in case of contention. 

Final certification and due-diligence is further performed by the external independent audit officer Dr Andrew Jason Tickle who has worked extensively with industry during his career. He is currently an Assistant Professor / Senior Lecturer in Electrical / Electronic Engineering at Coventry University with 15 years’ experience where he teaches fundamental electronics, machine vision, and advanced robotics. Andrew is both a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Physicist (CPhys) and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)

Lead-times are normally around 30 working days from an application from an IX Liverpool Member. Certifications are issued annually and therefore a yearly re-inspection is due by the committee in order to keep a building certified.

Once certified, the end result is:

• A certificate that can be hung inside a building to display a buildings Digital status (that can be presented to incoming tenants)
• Listing in our website database of certified buildings that the public/tenants and use to search for
• A comprehensive breakdown on the buildings score and capability and what standard that is achieved and last inspection date (on the database listing)

The costs for Certification are as follows:

Office Buildings

• Building Type 1 (up to 3000 Sq Ft in rentable space): £250
• Building Type 2 (up to 6000 Sq Ft in rentable space): £350
• Building Type 3 (up to 12,000 Sq Ft in rentable space): £750
• Building Type 4 (up to 24,000 Sq Ft in rentable space): £1000
• Building Type 5 (up to and over 50,000 Sq Ft in rentable space): £1595

Student Accommodation 

• Building Type 1 (up to 25 beds ): £250
• Building Type 2 (up to 50 beds ): £350
• Building Type 3 (up to 100 beds ): £750
• Building Type 4 (up to 250 beds ): £1000
• Building Type 5 (up to 500 beds ): £1595
• Building Type 6 (up to 750 beds ): £2500
• Building Type 7 (up to 1200 beds ): £3800

Getting a building Certified

Landlords need to make an application through an existing member of the Liverpool Internet Exchange in order to begin the process.  The chosen member will contact the Buildings Certification Committee and ask for an application to by made and inspection visit booked to the building in question. The fee’s above are payable upon application in advance and all communication with the landlord is done through the member. For landlords without current connectivity or connectivity that is required to be improved, we suggest that you contact all of our members in turn to get competitive pricing and availability that suits your requirements.

Current Standard

Version 1.0 of the Certified Buildings standard was launched at a public event on 30th October 2019, at which the first 7 proposed buildings were presented in full detail.  During the public hearing that followed, there was no objections received.